University of Minnesota
School of Mathematics
School of Mathematics           Seminars Using UMConnect for Distance Communication
    math.umn.edu / systems_guide / gmail

Gmail Tips

Topics

Class Lists and Contact Groups
Disable Spam Filtering

Class Lists and Contact Groups

Contact groups for communicating with classes are simple to make and use in the Gmail web interface. First, in the web interface, switch from Mail to Contacts by clicking on the "Mail" drop down.

switchpoint contacts

From here, click "New Group" and type in a name for the contact group. Once the group has been created, copy the contact list for the class. Select the contact group by clicking on it. Click on the button to add contacts to a group, and paste the addresses into the box.

addresses

To use this contact group, switch back to mail. When composing a message, begin typing the name of the contact group into the "To" or, almost certainly more appropriately, the "Bcc" box. The name of the contact group will automatically appear, and when it is selected the addresses from the contact group will automatically fill into the box. Note: This may not happen instantly. Newly created contact groups may not show up for several minutes.

compose

Disable Spam Filtering

While it's not recommended, some people may wish to disable Google's spam filtering capabilities. The feature itself cannot be disabled, but it can be worked around by using Gmail's filters. In the search at the top of the Gmail web interface, click the arrow to drop down the advanced search options, type "is:spam" into the field "Has the words" and click "Create filter with this search".

isspam

A warning will appear about such filters not applying to incoming mail, which can be safely ignored. On the following screen, simply select the checkbox "Never send it to Spam" and then click "Create filter". Spam will no longer be automatically removed from the inbox and placed in the spam folder.